


the world falls (to the side)

by lincesque



Category: Warcraft (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Brainships, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 05:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7301077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincesque/pseuds/lincesque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grand Justiciar Llane Wrynn of the Alliance Fleet is one of the few humans who has ever been allowed to commission a ship from the Kirin Tor. <i>The Raven</i> is all sleek black lines and lethal power, a Destroyer class battleship lit from within by subdued white and gold highlights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the world falls (to the side)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sienna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sienna/gifts).



> [Desu](http://archiveofourown.org/users/sienna/pseuds/sienna) let herself be conned into seeing Warcraft with me, then i promptly sat online and screamed at her for almost 3 hours about different fic ideas. then after that, i promptly wrote this which was completely not part of the conversation anywhere. but thanks anyway, desu, this is for you ♥
> 
> very loosely based off Anne McCaffrey's _The Ships Who_ series but no knowledge of the books is required at all (considering i've never actually read anything more than the [TVTropes page](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheShipWho), whoops?)
> 
> i've never written sci-fi before but i just couldn't get this idea out of my head. warcraft lore has been twisted and manipulated for my own ends - you'll probably hurt yourself reading this if you're a lore purist.
> 
> title taken from SMNM's [gravity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx0b6uGcFg4). i'm sorry (not sorry? maybe? idek anymore)

*

The Kirin Tor are master builders. Out of all the races in the galaxy, they were one of the few who still retained the complete knowledge obtained by millennia of research and advancement, stored in vast databanks on their home planet of Dalaran.

Ships were not _made_ by the Kirin Tor, they were born of. It was rumoured that any battleship built by the Kirin Tor housed the soul of one of their own - a member of their telepathic and technopathic race who donated their body and mind for the advancement of science. 

Grand Justiciar Llane Wrynn of the Alliance Fleet is one of the few humans who has ever been allowed to commission a ship from them. _The Raven_ is all sleek black lines and lethal power, a Destroyer class battleship lit from within by subdued white and gold highlights. Its stealth settings and top of the line weaponry are legendary whispers amongst the Alliance Fleet.

Commander Anduin Lothar, Llane’s second in command, only ever boards _The Raven_ once, for a diplomatic trip from Alliance headquarters while his personal ship was under maintenance. He remembers very little of the short flight except for the bleak chill in the air and the feeling of being watched the entire time he was on board - an almost palpable prickle on the back of his neck. An uncomfortable feeling to say the least.

He mentions this to Llane afterwards, when they’re back on home soil, on one brief day of leave. STORMW-02 is almost an exact replica of Earth Prime - one of the first planets to be lost to the Horde, a race of alien invaders bent on conquering the galaxy and bringing it under their rule, during the First Galactic War.

“Medivh is unused to people other than my core crew,” Llane says, with a half shrug of either apology or dismissal. “He did not deliberately isolate you or mean to make you feel unwelcome.”

Lothar was sometimes unsettled by the way Llane seemed to refer to _The Raven’s_ AI system more as a person than just a ship. However, whenever he did inadvertently bring this point up, Llane would be the one left looking puzzled.

“Medivh is more than just an AI, Lothar,” Llane would say, jaw stubborn in a way that said he already had made up his mind and it was pointless to argue. “I trust him with my very life and he is my partner in every sense of the word.” He gestured at himself. “I would not be here, alive, and still with the Alliance today if not for him.”

*

Lothar would have left things as they were - a delicate balance of politics and alliances, both internal and external - if not for War General Gul’dan of the Horde.

Gul’dan has long been a thorn in the Alliance’s side, a master strategist - possessing certain augmented abilities outlawed centuries ago from all civilised galaxies due to it’s highly unethical nature. They had also been proven to slowly poison the mind and drive the user insane. The research for most of the augments had been believed to be long destroyed during the great purge post the Second Galactic War, but Gul’dan’s rise to power had proven that this was not at all true in any sense.

During the last skirmish between the Alliance and the Horde, less than two hyperspace jumps from STORMW-02, Gul’dan’s spymaster managed to upload the FEL virus onto _The Raven’s_ mainframe, disabling its AI defences and suspending it in an emergency protocol reboot loop, before Horde troops stormed the ship and killed everyone on-board, including Llane. They left the ship untouched - Kirin Tor battleships were, after all, one of the rarest things in the galaxy, a worthy prize to bring home to be presented to Gul’dan.

Lothar, who had been light years away in a different solar system on a diplomatic mission, hears about what happens next from many different firsthand sources. Different voices that all agree on one thing: the moment _The Raven_ managed to quarantine and divest itself of the FEL and realised that Llane was dead - it had locked itself down and flew itself straight into the nearby Horde Destroyer, detonating every single missile at its disposal.

 _Almost like a suicide run_ , they had murmured. _Almost as if the ship had known exactly what had happened and destroyed itself along with its enemies in its grief._

Lothar does not tell them about the single holovid delivered to his private comm-unit that he had found when he had finally slunk back into his room, eyes rimmed with red, emotions raw. The man in the vid is tall, with long blond hair and his edges are blurred by bursts of static. He is cloaked in the same stealth black as _The Raven’s_ warpaint and his eyes are impossibly anguished with grief. 

_This is Medivh_ , Lothar realises numbly. Llane had been right all along - _The Raven_ was not just a simple ship created by technology and metal, but somehow a soul born of flesh and blood too.

“I am sorry,” Medivh says, voice ringing hollow and empty, staring directly at him, almost as if he could see Lothar even through the time-lapsed holovid. “I have failed in my duty to protect Llane and I will pay my penance willingly.”

Medivh is semi-translucent and becoming more so with each passing second. Lothar can see the lights of the bridge flaring bright behind him, through him, red klaxon alarms flashing - proximity alerts, missile launch warnings, self destruct countdown. “The fight is yours now, Commander,” he says just before he vanishes entirely and the screen cuts to black. 

“Good luck.”

*

Lothar ascends to the title of Grand Justiciar and, by choice, does not send any request to the Kirin Tor. 

The ring of office that Llane had once worn sits dull and heavy on his finger, still barely warm, when they summon him anyway. 

He knows that it would be sheer folly not to go - the Alliance will need every weapon in their arsenal soon - war is coming, he can feel its dreaded beat in his very blood.

He makes the three hyperspace jumps alone, as instructed, with reluctance. Lothar pauses briefly above the abandoned moon base of Strom II, before jumping to the outer rim of the Lordamere constellation and finally to the very edge of the CRYTL-S system.

The Kirin Tor are a strange and quiet people, likely because of their telepathic and technopathic connections to their surroundings and each other. They move past one another fluidly, even in the most packed of spaces, with hardly any eye-contact at all. Lothar is guided in silence to the very heart of Dalaran’s Forge, deep within the earth, where their battleships are crafted by science and dreams, a lost art that belongs solely to them and guarded fiercely for millennia.

Lothar swears that he feels his ship before he sees it, as soon as he sets foot in the Forge. There’s a low murmur that drifts through the long, sterile corridors directly to him, beckoning him forward with each step. The master builder who is guiding Lothar keeps her pace slow and steady, but her gaze is knowing when his steps fall faster and faster as they close in on their final destination.

There are many ships, both completed and nearing completion, suspended in the hangar, but Lothar’s gaze is immediately drawn to the smallest one of the lot, docked in the furthest back corner, away from all the others. Its stealth coat is dark, lit from above by a single solar light - a jarring difference from the Alliance ships which were usually in shades of silver with accents of light blue and gold.

The master builder stops at the edge of the raised platform leading to the ship. She bows slightly to him. “This is where I leave you, Justicar,” she murmurs. “ _The Magus_ is yours.”

Lothar nods back and waits until she’s out of sight before he turns back to the ship, _his_ ship now. _The Magus_ is a Cruiser class, half the size of Destroyer class ships, but faster and, with what he knew of Kirin Tor preferences, most likely with heavier firepower.

Lothar’s boots are loud on the narrow metal platform - there is no railing on the side and only the gaping darkness of below, an endless freefall of Light knew how many feet - but his steps do not even falter. Close up, _The Magus_ is actually a blue so deep that it seems black. He breathes in and exhales, slow, placing his left hand on the scanner next to the door. 

The door slides open silently, and then closes behind him with a soft hiss as he steps inside fully. _The Magus’_ engines rumble to life beneath his feet, internal lights flickering on, bathing the muted chrome walls with a white-blue sheen. Lothar follows the trail of lights to the bridge, his boot heels clicking softly on the cool metal floor.

He’s not surprised to see someone already there by the controls, a man by the silhouette, clad in a dark blue military overcoat, gold officer stripes at the shoulders and wrists, standing in front of the holoscreen. Pre-flight checks flicker rapidly across the screen, but he seemed to be looking past that, staring up out at where the Forge’s dome was slowly opening to the night. 

Lothar wonders, as he stops next to it - _him_ , he reminds himself sharply - if this is the first time he has seen the open sky, glittering with stars and filled with endless possibilities. 

The man turns to face him then and all Lothar can think is that he seems terribly young, cheeks still round and features open with wonder. But, there’s something _else_ there as well, not quite able to be hidden in his eyes - wide and guileless - a glimpse of something vast and timeless.

“Your name,” Lothar asks, soft. “What is your name?” 

The man says nothing for a moment, something distant in his expression - as if searching for an answer. “You can call me Khadgar,” he says finally. His voice is unexpectedly gentle, a quiet tenor that hums with the echo of the hyperdrive engine deep within the ship's core.

“Khadgar,” Lothar repeats, voice a low rumble, and he holds out his left hand on pure instinct. “I am Grand Justiciar Anduin Lothar.”

“Justiciar,” _The Magus_ \- Khadgar - murmurs and sinks gracefully to one knee before him, lips pressing against the ring on Lothar’s finger. The previously dull crystal pulses with light, a brilliant blue that shimmers in the air and tastes almost electric against the back of Lothar’s throat when he breathes in. 

“It would be my honour to serve you,” Khadgar says, and when he looks up, his eyes are glowing the same unearthly blue as he seals their bond. 

“‘ _Til death do us apart_.”

*

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [tumblr](http://tumbloncat.tumblr.com/)
> 
> i'm always up for screeching about anything :D


End file.
